Changes to the mines ministry follow calls for this type of regulatory information to be made available after the catastrophic collapse of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine waste dam in 2014.JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The B.C. government has launched a new online platform where the public now has access to mine inspection reports, permits and their amendments, as well as dam safety reports.

Eventually, the online database will include orders, penalties and sanctions levied against mining companies.

The province had posted dam safety reports online as a first step last year, but this is the first time the other documents are being made available to the public at mines.empr.gov.bc.ca.

The mines ministry now leads all other ministries and agencies in the province in providing the most inspection and safety information online, outstripping what is available from the B.C. Ministry of Environment and the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, for example.

The effort is in collaboration with the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, which is implementing a similar system to be launched soon. The assessment office site will include project description reports, inspections, orders and the field notes of officers.

The changes follow calls for this type of regulatory information to be made available after the catastrophic collapse of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine waste dam in 2014.

First Nations, environmental groups and the NDP had criticized the B.C. government’s inspection record of Mount Polley gold and copper mine, and questioned why the information wasn’t available online as a matter of routine.

The issue of public access to information was raised during a Vancouver Sun investigation into the Mount Polley collapse, and was brought into clear relief when The Sun uncovered dam safety inspection reports in a public library the province had refused to release.

In a written statement, B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett said following the Mount Polley dam failure, the government recognized the need to improve its records management systems and committed to implement a system more readily accessible to the public. “I think this new web-based system delivers on that commitment, providing easier access and greater transparency to permit information, inspection reports and other details about mines in British Columbia,” said Bennett.

The new information is available for major operating mines such as Taseko’s Gibraltar gold and copper mine, and those under care and maintenance, such as Thompson Creek’s Endako molybdenum mine.

For closed mines, such as Barrick’s Equity Silver mine, only the dam safety information is available, but eventually, the site will also include permit amendments for these mines as well.

There has not been a decision on whether the site will include reports from independent engineering dam review panels. The B.C. Liberal government has said it will require mines to put in place the panels to provide another level of assessment of dam design and construction.

University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre legal director Calvin Sandborn said the mine information website is a “wonderful” reform.

But he questioned why the government was not taking a provincewide approach to openly posting online this type of information across all areas.

“It’s like pulling teeth,” said Sandborn. “There is a principle here: is this an open government or not?”

The UVic Environmental Law Centre was among those that had called for the open release of inspection reports and dams safety reports following the Mount Polley dam collapse.

The law centre had noted these types of documents are routinely posted online in other jurisdictions such as the United States, Ontario and Nunavut.

In response to questions from The Sun, the Ministry of Environment said it is not going to implement a similar online platform as that of the mine ministry and the Environmental Assessment Office.

It pointed to a document search website which gives access to documents such as permits and waste hazard approvals. The environment ministry also has an environmental violations database, but it provides only a brief summary of violations and no documentation.

The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission is also not implementing the system. It, however, pointed to its major projects website which provides permits but not inspection reports.

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